A NEW ALPHABET OF THE ANCIENTS IS UNEARTHED
covery, and at a depth
of from two to six
feet we came across
exquisite clay pottery
of the second millen
nium B. C. Among
our treasures were
small goblets probably
imported from Cy
prus, magnificent vases,
similar to those which
American and English
archeologists have re
moved from Cretan
palaces, and large stor
age jars, like those in
use during the lifetime
of Christ in Palestine
(see pages 500 and
502).
Soon we had ma
terial sufficient for a
small ceramic mu
seum. We could have
equipped a whole
kitchen and we actu
ally d i d assemble a
complete table service
3,500 years old. At
one place we found a
whole set of weights,
the largest of which is
exactly equal to an
Egyptian mina of 437
grams; the others were
fractions of it (see il
lustration, page 515),
thus establishing the
highly significant fact The figu
that Cretan- Cypriote
merchants of Minet
el-Beida used Egyptian weights.
OTHER SURPRISES IN STORE
Other surprises were still to come. At
the foot of a little wall, completely hidden
in the ground, lay a well-preserved bronze
figure of the Egyptian hawk god, Horus,
covered with patina. The royal bird wears
the pschent, or double crown of Upper
and Lower Egypt. Not far from it lay
another figure of a hawk, the plumage
artistically inlaid with gold. Between his
claws he holds the urseus, or sacred asp,
symbol of royalty which the Pharaohs
wore on their headdresses (see, also, pages
500 and 511).
Photograph from Prof. F. A. Schaeffer
HORUS, THE IAWK GOD, EMERGES FROM HIS
3,000-YEAR BURIAL
re lay amid fragments of a vase and a Cyprian bowl (see, also,
illustration, page 511, and text, below).
On this splendid example of ancient
goldsmith's craft one may distinctly recog
nize the Egyptian style. But a goldsmith
of the Nile Valley would never have dared
to place the royal symbol of honor, the
uraeus, between the claws of the hawk
god. Our discovery, therefore, reveals a
mixture of Egyptian and foreign in
fluence-a fact easily explained by the
geographic location of the place of dis
covery, at the junction of great thorough
fares from various centers of culture.
The same observation applies to the
bronze figure of a seated god which we
dug up next to the two hawks. The head
of the youthful god has the typical profile
499